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Baby_Hitler
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The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture.
#3357493 - 11/13/04 08:53 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/iraq_seeds.htm
As part of sweeping "economic restructuring" implemented by the Bush Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save their seeds. Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US corporations -- including seeds the Iraqis themselves developed over hundreds of years. That is because in recent years, transnational corporations have patented and now own many seed varieties originated or developed by indigenous peoples. In a short time, Iraq will be living under the new American credo: Pay Monsanto, or starve.
When the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) celebrated biodiversity on World Food Day on October 16, Iraqi farmers were mourning its loss. A new report [1] by GRAIN and Focus on the Global South has found that new legislation in Iraq has been carefully put in place by the US that prevents farmers from saving their seeds and effectively hands over the seed market to transnational corporations. This is a disastrous turn of events for Iraqi farmers, biodiversity and the country's food security. While political sovereignty remains an illusion, food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has been made near impossible by these new regulations.
"The US has been imposing patents on life around the world through trade deals. In this case, they invaded the country first, then imposed their patents. This is both immoral and unacceptable", said Shalini Bhutani, one of the report's authors.
The new law in question [2] heralds the entry into Iraqi law of patents on life forms - this first one affecting plants and seeds. This law fits in neatly into the US vision of Iraqi agriculture in the future - that of an industrial agricultural system dependent on large corporations providing inputs and seeds. In 2002, FAO estimated that 97 percent of Iraqi farmers used saved seed from their own stocks from last year's harvest or purchased from local markets. When the new law - on plant variety protection (PVP) - is put into effect, seed saving will be illegal and the market will only offer proprietary "PVP-protected" planting material "invented" by transnational agribusiness corporations. The new law totally ignores all the contributions Iraqi farmers have made to development of important crops like wheat, barley, date and pulses. Its consequences are the loss of farmers' freedoms and a grave threat to food sovereignty in Iraq. In this way, the US has declared a new war against the Iraqi farmer.
"If the FAO is celebrating 'Biodiversity for Food Security' this year, it needs to demonstrate some real commitment", says Henk Hobbelink of GRAIN, pointing out that the FAO has recently been cosying up with industry and offering support for genetic engineering [3]. "Most importantly, the FAO must recognise that biodiversity-rich farming and industry-led agriculture are worlds apart, and that industrial agriculture is one of the leading causes of the catastrophic decline in agricultural biodiversity that we have witnessed in recent decades. The FAO cannot hope to embrace biodiversity while holding industry's hand", he added.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
From GRAIN Shalini Bhutani in India [Tel: +91 11 243 15 168 (work) or +91 98 104 33 076 (cell)] or Alexis Vaughan in United Kingdom [Tel: +44 79 74 39 34 87 (mobile)]
From Focus on the Global South Herbert Docena in Philippines [Tel:+63 2 972 382 3804]
-------------------- "America: Fuck yeah!" -- Alexthegreat “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.” -- Thomas Jefferson The greatest sin of mankind is ignorance. The press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally. --Salena Zeto (9/23/16)
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Stein
Stranger
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Posts: 35,129
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#3357645 - 11/13/04 09:34 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Im interested in what seeds they must buy, and most of all, what the fuck they are growing in the desert.
Edited by Stein (11/13/04 09:47 PM)
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Baby_Hitler
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Stein]
#3357796 - 11/13/04 10:10 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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I'm not sure how accurate this article is. The way I understand it they may still (theoretically) use the same non-proprietary seed they have always used, they just can't save seed from bought seed.
Some say they are patenting crops that native people developed themselves, and then making it illegal for them to continue to do so, essentially stealing their intellectual property, and seizing control of the food supply through fancy courtroom shennanigans.
-------------------- "America: Fuck yeah!" -- Alexthegreat “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.” -- Thomas Jefferson The greatest sin of mankind is ignorance. The press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally. --Salena Zeto (9/23/16)
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Catalysis
EtherealEngineer
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#3358216 - 11/14/04 12:14 AM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Haha, wow. If they are gonna make up a story, they should at least make it believable. Quote:
Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US corporations
. US farmers dont even have to buy seeds from US corporations. They are just trying to play off the whole "haliburton, evil US corporation/government conspiracy thing", but they are doing it to such an extreme not even the most wild conspiracy theorists could support it.
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Great_Satan
prophet of God
Registered: 09/05/04
Posts: 953
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Catalysis]
#3359103 - 11/14/04 08:04 AM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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If that was true I doubt that anyone could enforce a law like that.
Edited by Great_Satan (11/14/04 08:09 AM)
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#3359192 - 11/14/04 09:16 AM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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No way this is true.
-------------------- -------------------------------- Mp3 of the month: Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish
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Great_Satan
prophet of God
Registered: 09/05/04
Posts: 953
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Learyfan]
#3359349 - 11/14/04 10:09 AM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Hey, Learyfan. I regret that slavery existed in the USA, too, because if it wasn't for slavery, people like you wouldn't be here.
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barfightlard
tales of theinexpressible
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Great_Satan]
#3359496 - 11/14/04 11:12 AM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Great_Satan said: Hey, Learyfan. I regret that slavery existed in the USA, too, because if it wasn't for slavery, people like you wouldn't be here.
Care to explain that?
-------------------- "What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, say, think, who I fuck, what I take into my body - as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?" - Bill Hicks
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Great_Satan]
#3359514 - 11/14/04 11:19 AM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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If you could do anything to me and get away with it, what would you do?
-------------------- -------------------------------- Mp3 of the month: Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Learyfan]
#3359661 - 11/14/04 12:00 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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I'm guessing he'd give you a spanking!
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#3359739 - 11/14/04 12:13 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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It sounds like he'd send me back to Africa.
-------------------- -------------------------------- Mp3 of the month: Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish
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Baby_Hitler
Errorist
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Learyfan]
#3360176 - 11/14/04 01:58 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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They'd have to send me back to alot of places.
EnglaHollaIreCherokeeland
-------------------- "America: Fuck yeah!" -- Alexthegreat “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.” -- Thomas Jefferson The greatest sin of mankind is ignorance. The press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally. --Salena Zeto (9/23/16)
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
Registered: 04/20/01
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Baby_Hitler]
#3360594 - 11/14/04 03:54 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Go back to Cherokee land.
-------------------- -------------------------------- Mp3 of the month: Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish
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Krishna
कृष्ण,LOL
Registered: 05/08/03
Posts: 23,285
Loc: oakland
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Learyfan]
#3360690 - 11/14/04 04:12 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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well i'm not sure about the reliabilty of that particular article - but the basic actions of companies like Monsanto is fairly close to what they are saying there - by mapping out the gene patterns of specific "strains" of plants (a common example is rice), Monsanto can "create" it's own version of rice, patent it through intellectual patents, and then force every farmer who uses their seed to pay a premium (not to mention genetically modifying the seeds with "terminator technology" that means each year, the farmers must buy new seeds). Then, if the buyers on the international market "choose" only to purchase Monsanto's crops (claiming that since they have been genetically developed, they are inherently superior, and thus the only product worth buying) - the farmers have no choice, really. Grow a crop that nobody will buy, or buy the seeds for the crop that you will actually be able to sell. Nevermind the fact that these supposably "better" crops end up not living up to their "genetic superiority."
Read something by Vandana Shiva on this topic - I had the good fortune to be able to meet her and had quite a few discussions with her at last years Gothenburg Book Fair. Here's her website: http://www.vshiva.net/ and here are a bunch of articles by her posted on ZNet: http://www.zmag.org/bios/homepage.cfm?authorID=90
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Great_Satan
prophet of God
Registered: 09/05/04
Posts: 953
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Krishna]
#3360752 - 11/14/04 04:24 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Krishna
कृष्ण,LOL
Registered: 05/08/03
Posts: 23,285
Loc: oakland
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Great_Satan]
#3360889 - 11/14/04 04:55 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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what does that have to do with agriculture? that's a link to a forum about the rules in islam for marrying one's slaves....
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Learyfan
It's the psychedelic movement!
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Krishna]
#3360953 - 11/14/04 05:11 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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Slimey bastards.
-------------------- -------------------------------- Mp3 of the month: Sons Of Adam - Feathered Fish
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Baby_Hitler
Errorist
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Re: The hijacking of Iraqi agriculture. [Re: Krishna]
#3361187 - 11/14/04 06:01 PM (19 years, 4 months ago) |
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I saw a presentation she did at University of California on UCTV on Dish Network.
-------------------- "America: Fuck yeah!" -- Alexthegreat “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.” -- Thomas Jefferson The greatest sin of mankind is ignorance. The press takes [Trump] literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally. --Salena Zeto (9/23/16)
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